Literary London: Full Circle

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While safely back in New York after an amazing semester abroad in London, I can’t help but share one final literary event that sparked not only the UK, but the entire world, the night before I flew back to the states. It goes back to my very first write-up for June on Literary London, proving that Londoners truly have a connection to their literature from all throughout history. I’m sure that most of you saw what I’m talking about on the 27^th of last month: the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremonies.

NIDO King’s Cross (our housing) was having a party in the café that night to celebrate the start of the Olympics—the night we had all been waiting for. For weeks prior, we had witnessed news crews come to London, sitting on the Tube with us (as well as Olympic athletes!), standing in line to get food, etc. and all the changes that were taking place within the city, as a whole. The new Olympic lanes were painted right outside our flat building, and banners lined the streets from Islington all the way to Mayfair and Greenwich. Each day, we knew that the ceremonies were getting closer. Finally, the Olympic Rings were added to Tower Bridge, and the torch was run through the various sections of London to signify that the 2012 games were beginning. Luckily for us in Islington, the torch was brought right past our flat building—at 6AM, however. I think that was the earliest that any of us had gotten up during the whole semester, but it was worth it!

A Review of Ragnarok; The End of the Gods by A.S. Byatt

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Sometimes there are books that simply speak to the times, that capture a momentary trend, encapsulate a particular headspace in time. For my summer of 2012, I think I may have found the one, a book that managed to capture some of my highlights and newfound interests within its pages. And that book is Ragnarok; The End of the Gods by A.S. Byatt.  The Avengers heralded the opening of summer with the misadventures of the infamous brothers of Asgard, Thor and Loki. On and on the summer days rolled away in brilliant sunshine and brought us the Olympic games, a tumultuous event that puts the world slightly off kilter, as all eyes turn towards one location, where a temporary world, very small and yet somehow greater than our own is created. And beyond the Olympics, beyond this summer, looming on the horizon is always the threat of war, decimation, an ultimate, apocalyptic end. The apocalyptic presence in our pop culture, cult fiction, and entertainment media is strong and constantly present. And so, as the summer draws to a close, a book that deals with that kind of tumult and subject matter, as well as the origins of Loki, Thor, and the Asgardians couldn’t be more appropriate.

Trash Talk: Gossip Girl Psycho Killer

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My first memory of reading a trashy book was in middle school when I started the Gossip Girl (GG) series by Cecily von Ziegesar. I loved entering the mind of Blair Waldorf and dreaming of attending a private school in the Upper East Side. The lavish parties, the beautiful clothes, and the lack of adult supervision seemed like a perfect way to live. I continued reading the GG series until its end. I even tried reading the spin-off series Gossip Girl: The Carlyles, but it wasn’t the same. A ghostwriter wrote them, and the new characters weren’t able to capture the snarky tone of von Ziegesar’s characters.

That’s why I was thrilled when von Ziegear announced she was rewriting the first  Gossip Girl novel as if main characters Blair Waldorf and Serena Van der Woodsen were serial killers. I finally had a chance to read it, ten years after the original GG was published by Little, Brown and Company.

Ella Enchanted: From Page to Screen

“It starts with a fairy bestowing a spell.

This one’s for a baby, named Ella of Frell.”

Sound familiar? If you’ve ever seen Ella Enchanted, you might recognize it as the last lines of the narrator’s opening rhyme. True to his word, the first scene shows Lucinda the fairy giving baby Ella the magical gift of obedience. Gail Carson Levine’s book opens in almost the same way, and that’s pretty much where the similarities end.

Ella Enchanted is one of my favorite books, yet also one of the cheesiest movies I’ve ever seen. I could enjoy it on a superficial level – the scenery was pretty, they had some fun songs, and it was generally a feel-good movie. However, the addition of a rhyming narrator, outrageously colorful costumes, and an unnecessary villain detracted from what was already a good story. In my opinion, the movie and the book might as well not be related. Take away the premise of a girl under an obedience spell, and this could be its own film. Just change the names. It is an extremely loose interpretation. Basically, I’m here to say: Don’t judge a book by its movie. (Also, spoilers below.)

Brave-ing the Disney Section in Barnes and Noble: When the book is based on the movie

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Since I’ve been writing about what can make a manuscript or book unsuccessful, I thought I would shift gears for a bit and write about a book and franchise that really blows children away. Disney is by far a great standard to hold any story to. I recently visited a bookstore after seeing Brave, Pixar’s latest, and was surprised by the amount of movie merchandise there was in book form. Disney offers many different Brave books including a Big Golden Book version of Brave, a Little Golden Book version, a Busy Book which includes a board book and figurines, and a storybook including a small plastic movie-slide projector. And those were just what I could find in stock! Brave merchandise was being gobbled up by families, and understandably so, the movie was pretty popular.

Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love.

It did not end well.

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This first tragically poetic line is one that would have most rolling their eyes. This book, however, like its first line, is not at all what is seems. We’ve all seen the most clichéd approaches to romance brewing within the crowd-pleasing section of the YA plot factory: the butchered analogy of magnetic poles to represent opposites attracting, the “thrill” of forbidden romance, the dreaded love triangle/square/pentagon/whatever-the-hell-it-is-shape, and a splash of hot, supernatural, consistently half-naked men to get the fangirls going. We’ve all seen these horrific staples on the YA shelves, to the point where it seems that it’s all we ever read. But fear not, YA fiction pioneers, for there is a shining beacon of hope in the young adult world. This beacon hardly has a cliché to its name, due to the author’s imaginative reinvention and ability to put spins on what has already been overused by others in fantasy. This fantastic and beautifully written addition to the YA lit world is Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.